London: Infamous Russian pranksters with suspected hyperlinks to the Kremlin posed as “opponents in exile” to supply recommendation to a federal parliamentary committee inquiring into how the Australian authorities might take a stronger motion towards the Putin regime.
The duo, Vovan and Lexus, informed a session of the Japanese Financial Discussion board within the Russian metropolis of Vladivostok on Wednesday that they had duped Australia’s Overseas Affairs and Commerce Committee by pretending to be dissidents, giving senators “pretend information” concerning the theft of native animals by Russian spies.
The duo, Vovan and Lexus, have additionally focused distinguished Kremlin critics together with Prince Harry, former British prime minister Boris Johnson, creator J. Okay. Rowling, former US president George W. Bush and singer Elton John.
The notorious pair, whose actual names are Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov, have admitted to being sympathetic to Russian President Vladimir Putin and are suspected by Western officers to be brokers of Moscow’s safety providers. The duo has denied formal affiliation with the Kremlin.
They use Rutube, a Russian equal of YouTube, to share clips of their hoaxes, which have focused distinguished Kremlin critics together with Prince Harry, former British prime minister Boris Johnson, creator J. Okay. Rowling, former US president George W. Bush and singer Elton John.
The companions performed footage of the video name to Australia on the Russian discussion board which had taken place in April 2021 throughout debate across the Magnitsky Act. The legal guidelines, which handed later that yr, gave the Australian authorities the ability to focus on people with sanctions, together with journey bans and property freezing, who had profiteered from human rights abuses.
The skilled pranksters’ session on the discussion board, the place Putin delivered a significant tackle, was referred to as “The numerous faces of fact: how you can win the knowledge warfare?”
They later boasted on Russian state radio Sputnik: “On the finish of the dialog [with Australian senators] we mentioned: ‘There’s such an issue, you most likely know…. Russian spies are stealing kangaroos from you, platypuses, echidnas are stolen, all that is delivered by direct flights to Russia for enjoyable from the loopy Russian oligarchs who prepare soiled safaris on these kangaroos’.”
Learn extra right here.
